By BECKY BOHRER
The Associated Press
JUNEAU (AP) — The Alaska House abruptly adjourned today after ratifying plans for using more than $1 billion in federal coronavirus relief aid, one day after reconvening to take up the issue.
The Senate passed its own ratification bill but stayed in session to consider the House version, which aides said is identical.
Senate Rules Chair John Coghill, a North Pole Republican, said he did not see a problem if the bills are the same but said when the House sends a bill to the Senate, it needs a committee hearing. His committee heard the measure Tuesday morning, after the House adjourned.
The Senate scheduled a floor session for Wednesday.
Coghill said he was surprised by the House adjournment. But House Speaker Bryce Edgmon, an independent from Dillingham, said the House adjourned because it was done with its work. He said the House lacked support to take up other measures.
“Once we got the ratification bill through, our work was done. That was our commitment to coming down here in the first place,” he said.
The House had on its calendar bills aimed at updating alcohol laws and raising state motor fuels taxes. Those were not taken up.
Sen. Lora Reinbold, an Eagle River Republican, was the lone no vote on the Senate ratification bill. She said she worried it was the giving the executive branch too much power over the purse.
The vote on the House side was 38-1, with Rep. David Eastman, a Wasilla Republican, dissenting.
A lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the spending plans prompted lawmakers to return to Juneau on Monday. It was the first time the full Legislature had reconvened since going into recess in late March amid coronavirus concerns.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy had submitted plans for distributing federal aid to the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee under a process set out in law. That process allows a governor to submit to the committee plans to accept and spend additional federal or other program funds on a budget item. But concerns were raised that some of the items fell outside the scope of what can go through that committee process.
The committee nonetheless agreed to more than $1 billion in spending plans. Legislative attorney Megan Wallace, in a memo to the committee’s chair earlier this month, recommended the Legislature ratify the spending if it supported the actions.
The ratification bills were intended to approve and ratify the actions by the committee and Dunleavy.
Attorney Joe Geldhof filed the lawsuit on behalf of resident Eric Forrer, who Geldhof said plans to continue to contest the underlying constitutional issues raised by the case.